Create a Table of Contents automatically
Much like the author of this article, our company needs a way to automatically generate a table of contents for large articles. After finding out we can use jQuery, I put together a script that will automagically create a tiered table of contents based on the Header tags used in the article.
All you need to do is paste the Javascript in this page into the Javascript section of your Articles:
Click on the JS tab, then paste in the code at the end:
That should do it.. as long as you've used proper heading tags (H1, H2, etc), a Table of Contents will be created any time you load the article.
You can see a live example here: http://codepen.io/ngalluzzo/pen/kXqyVQ?editors=1010
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Hey Iris, glad to hear it works!
Yes, it is doable to have it on the right or left side but that requires some design/CSS changes in the layout.
If you have someone in your team familiar with CSS he/she can do that for sure.
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Vladan, thank you very much for sharing. I've incorporated the code into the article_page.hbs template of our HC and it works great. I had played around a bit with the JS version but couldn't get it to run properly (could be due to a highly customized HC with category accordians, etc).
Thanks again for a fantastic ToC solution!
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Hey all,
Just an FYI this line:
var $anchorname = $heading[0].outerText.replace (/\s/g,'');
should be changed to:
var $anchorname = $heading[0].innerText.replace (/\s/g,'');
This will make it work on Firefox browsers.
<script>
/* ============================================================================================== */
/* ============================== Custom Article Table of Contents ============================== */
/* ============================================================================================== */
var $headers = $('.article-body:first h1');
if ($headers.length == 0) $headers = $('.article-body:first h2');
if ($headers.length > 0) {
var $toc = $('<div class="toc" style="margin-bottom: 25px">');
var $firstUl = $('<ul>');
var $currentUl = $firstUl;
var previous_level = 1;
var $arrayUl = [];
$firstUl.appendTo($toc);
$('#table-of-contents').length > 0 ? $toc.appendTo('#table-of-contents') : $toc.prependTo('.article-body:first');
// start with first H1
insertHeading($headers[0]);
}
function insertHeading(heading) {
var $heading = $(heading);
// what level heading are we on?
var current_level = headingLevel(heading);
// if it's an H1, add it to the original list
if (current_level === 1) {
newLi($heading, $firstUl);
$currentUl = $firstUl;
$arrayUl = [];
$arrayUl.push($firstUl);
}
// if it's the same as the one before it, add it to the current list
else if (current_level === previous_level) {
newLi($heading, $currentUl);
}
// if it's one level higher than the one before it... time to make a new nested list
else if (current_level > previous_level) {
nestUl();
$arrayUl.push($currentUl);
newLi($heading, $currentUl);
}
else if (current_level<previous_level){
for (i = 0; i < (previous_level-current_level); i++) {
$arrayUl.pop();
}
$currentUl = $arrayUl[$arrayUl.length-1];
newLi($heading, $currentUl);
}
previous_level = current_level;
var $nextHeading = $heading.nextAll("h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6").first()[0];
// if there's any headings left... run this again
if ($nextHeading) insertHeading($nextHeading);
}
// adds a new UL to the current UL
function nestUl() {
var $newUl = $('<ul>');
$newUl.appendTo($currentUl);
$currentUl = $newUl;
}
// returns a numerical value for each heading
function headingLevel(heading) {
switch (heading.nodeName) {
case 'H1':
return 1;
break;
case 'H2':
return 2;
break;
case 'H3':
return 3;
break;
case 'H4':
return 4;
break;
case 'H5':
return 5;
break;
case 'H6':
return 6;
break;
default:
return 0;
}
}
// inserts a new line to the current list
function newLi(heading, $list) {
var $heading = $(heading);
if ($heading.text().replace(/\s/g, '') == '') return null;
var $wrapper = $('<li></li>');
//var $link = $('<a>').prop('href', '#' + $heading.prop('id'));
var $anchorname = $heading[0].innerText.replace (/\s/g,'');
var $link = $('<a>').prop('href', '#' + $anchorname);
$link.html($heading.text());
$link.appendTo($wrapper);
$wrapper.appendTo($list);
var place_in_parent = $list.children('li').length;
$heading.html("<a name=\"" + $anchorname + "\"></a>" + $link.find('.index').text() + ' ' + $heading.text());
}
</script> -
Am I missing something with implementing this code?
Reading the thread, and taking the last post from @Tim, I understand the totality of the implementation path being this:
- In Guide, go to /theming/workbench
- Select your theme, and press view theme.
- press Edit code.
- Edit script.js, and add the code to the end of the file. Save changes.
And that's it - it should display right?
Having followed these steps on my Guide instance, running the Copenhagen theme, I don't get anything let alone the change i'm expected.
Here's a page from my Guide instance which I would hope gets this auto TOC:
https://help.wafresh.com.au/hc/en-au/articles/360007488692-What-happens-if-an-item-is-out-of-stock-or-unavailable-Appreciate any help or feedback to understand where I'm going wrong.
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@Michael H
You want to put it in the article_page.hbs file, not script.js
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@Tim Capone
Does it matter where in article-Page.hbs you put this script? I've tried adding this to a default Copenhagen theme, and I'm not seeing anything.
I used Vladan's script and it worked fine.
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@Paul LaBarbera
I put my code on the bottom of the script.
It's working on Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Edge for me.
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Hi,
Per Tim's comment from last week:
>> It's working on Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Edge for me.
Does anyone know if this code is browser-dependent? A former colleague who contributed to this thread (Nick Smolnehy) implemented this feature here. I believe he made some additions to the original code.
Using Chrome, it's been working great, but I started using Firefos yesterday, and:
1. The TOC itself does not display.
2. The headings throughout the document are not auto-numbered e.g2.1.3 Modify Vendor
appears as
Modify Vendor
Thanks.
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Hey everyone, check out this article which has a modified Javascript code that uses "H2" size for TOC headings. The original source code can be found in Github here which uses the WYSIWYG editor "Huge" size for the TOC. Both worked for my Help Center in wonderful fashion. I prefer the original source code since it allowed the ability to give the TOC a custom placeholder name and hyperlinks the "Huge" headings. Highly recommend for anyone looking to add a nice looking Table of Contents.
To install, simply add the code snippet to your "Script.js" page below "$(document).ready(function() {" in your theme editor.
You can see an example below:
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Thanks for taking the time to share this with everyone Matthew!
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Can a community team member assist me with adding a table of contents to my knowledge base? The above does not seem to work in 2020. Also, I am using H2 for my main headers.
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Hey Tyler,
This would require some custom code in your Guide theme which is not something we can help with from our end. I would recommend taking a look at the following documentation we have available:
If you don't have the necessary resources available to assist with customizing your Help Center, we do have a Professional Services team that can assist at an additional cost. This is something you'll want to discuss with your account manager so if you're interested, I'm happy to get you in touch if needed.
Cheers!
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I added @... code and it worked but is there any way I can make this into side navigation and not the first thing on the article - does that make sense?
Here is a link to an article: https://helpcenter.enalyzer.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012608599#HowdoIcreateateam?
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Vladan - This works great in Chrome and Safari, but in Firefox the li elements are not created - have you noticed this?
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Hey Ami, I didn't notice, to be honest. Do you have it on live and can share the URL with us so I can check?
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I've noticed that this code breaks if I wrap the H2 with a div or section. The toc only shows the first H2 but none of the subsequent H2s. Has anyone else experienced this?
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Hey Ami, yes that is the case. I suggest not wrapping the H2s in divs. If you need to add divs within content, just add it around the <p>s inside the H2/H3s
This solution works in most ZD environments, but if you have a very customized theme it may not.
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in response to @...'s post here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/213641488/comments/360001878568
This was the only code snippet I could get to work for our instance of ZenDesk. Thank you for that!
Now I've noticed that when we click one of the links in the TOC it takes us to the respective heading, but the viewport of the screen is about 30 pixels below the actual header. (see the GIF below).
@... posted a link to her Guides here and as I looked at the Enalyzer TOC it works perfectly... taking you right to the respective header... placing it perfectly at the top of the screen viewport.
What modifications could I add to the code below, to adjust the script to make the anchor have the header appear at the top of the viewport?
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In addition to my last question (previous post) I am just now noticing that the table of contents does not render/display when I visit a page. However, when I press the "refresh" button on that page, the TOC then appears. Any idea what I could change, in the code, to make the TOC render immediately, the first time the page loads? @...?
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Hey Jordan, regarding this issue "but the viewport of the screen is about 30 pixels below the actual header." - it could be fixed with pure CSS (padding-top and negative margin-top).
It's really hard to tell from this point why the TOC doesn't work from the 1st visit of the page; maybe it would help if you can share your HC URL so I can take a closer look. Thanks!
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Experiencing the same issue as Jordan with the viewport being below the linked heading.
I'm also wondering what part of the code creates the numbering (1, 1.1, 1.1.1). I'd like to remove the numbering but keep everything else as is.
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@... I wish I could share our community link but it's a private comm 😞
I do have some good news though... I found some script that adjusts the top of the viewport for anchor links, and it's working marvelously. I did adjust the "100" to "80" and it's perfect for us. Here's the js snippet:
// The function actually applying the offset function offsetAnchor() { if (location.hash.length !== 0) { window.scrollTo(window.scrollX, window.scrollY - 100); } } // Captures click events of all <a> elements with href starting with # $(document).on('click', 'a[href^="#"]', function(event) { // Click events are captured before hashchanges. Timeout // causes offsetAnchor to be called after the page jump. window.setTimeout(function() { offsetAnchor(); }, 0); }); // Set the offset when entering page with hash present in the url window.setTimeout(offsetAnchor, 0);Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17535094/6084758
btw @... ⬆︎ that should help you! Also, I'm not seeing 1.1 or 1.11, etc. we see an "unordered list" in our community. I wonder if you're seeing numbers as a result of custom styling in your community?
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Wow thanks @... that works really well.
I have my TOC working with nested bullet points for each heading level. Two things I'm curious if anyone knows:
- how to edit the code so my TOC only displays all the <h2> from the article and not the rest of the headings.
- how to add a title like 'Table of Contents' to appear above the TOC by default.
Thank you.
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This thread has been super helpful, so thanks everyone who has contributed.
Like @..., I'm also wanting to add a title to the TOC - Is someone able to point us in the right direction?
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Do you have any updated code for this? I only found one from this article and some things seem to be outdated. Thank you!https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4408867942298-Tip-How-to-make-a-Table-Of-Contents-TOC-For-Article-Template
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